--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbd5d258a905d03a9/69869f29cd6848379209604e/t100_tv_mary-hartman1.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Aug 12, 2014 # _Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman_ by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Everett “Ahead of its time” is a cliche for cult shows, but it may also be an understatement in this case. I’m not sure the time will ever quite come for Norman Lear’s fantastically weird, deadpan parody of soap operas and consumer culture. A nightly comedy-drama, set in a small town in Ohio, its stories involved country music, a murder mystery and the title star, played by Louise Lasser in her iconic pigtails, a housewife obsessed with waxy buildup on her kitchen floors. Following the binge of the ’60s and the purge of Watergate, Lear’s unsettlingly sardonic show captured a hungover America, wandering in a Valium-like haze, morally adrift, and addicted to—you guessed it—television. [Get This TV Series](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000MEYKA0/?tag=timecom-20 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3103631/mary-hartman-mary-hartman/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3103631/mary-hartman-mary-hartman/"},"headline":"Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman","datePublished":"2014-08-12T14:40:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:01:28.251Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3103631/mary-hartman-mary-hartman/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbd5d258a905d03a9/69869f29cd6848379209604e/t100_tv_mary-hartman1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbd5d258a905d03a9/69869f29cd6848379209604e/t100_tv_mary-hartman1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3103631/mary-hartman-mary-hartman/","name":"Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman","description":"Following the binge of the '60s and the purge of Watergate, Lear's unsettlingly sardonic show captured a hungover America, wandering in a Valium-like haze, morally adrift, and addicted to--you guessed it--television.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ZEMylcX9/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2007-09-04T19:51:20.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ZEMylcX9.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3103631/mary-hartman-mary-hartman/","duration":"PT29S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3103631/mary-hartman-mary-hartman/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```